Re: Swapping Bull***

From: Irrwahn Grausewitz (irrwahn33_at_freenet.de)
Date: 07/07/04 

Date: Wed, 07 Jul 2004 19:13:37 +0200

Dan.Pop@cern.ch (Dan Pop) wrote:
>In <9eane0148ou4ouh5a7cpjqrkor4btrf6i6@4ax.com> Irrwahn Grausewitz <irrwahn33@freenet.de> writes:

<snippage>
>>[...] *p is not a proper identifier and it
>>can't be initialized on declaration,
>>thus it's not a variable.
>
>By *your* narrow minded definition of variable.

I'd call it sensible. <OT> And, BTW, it matches the definition in the
C++ standard, a language distinct from C, but closely related. </OT>

<snip>
>BTW, a variable doesn't even need to have a name or to be declared.
>
> int *p = malloc(sizeof *p);
>
>creates an unnamed variable. You can access it with *p, just as you can
>access a named variable whose address is stored in p.

By your logic, given char *p = "abc"; *p constitutes a variable of
type char.

<snip>
>Not if the poster has a completely different set of priorities, i.e. he is
>already struggling to understand the concepts from his C book, using the
>author's terminology and the last thing he needs is more new concepts and
>definitions. Maybe you have forgotten those days, but I haven't (heck,
>it's a mere 16 years ago).

I certainly didn't (coincidentally, it's only about 16 years ago for
me, too), but I was always grateful when my local C guru corrected my
flawed mental image of basic concepts and terminology, as soon as
possible. YMMV.

<snip>
> When the OP is not
>a newbie (it's quite easy to tell the difference, even if he doesn't
>mention), correcting improper terminology is a must. As I said, it's a
>matter of getting the priorities right.

I cannot see the benefit of first teaching sloppiness to newbies and
then give them a hard time to get it correct later. Again, YMMV.

>So where does my black and white
>world comes from?

Since you're the only one able to provide a sensible answer to this
question, how am I supposed to know?

Regards 

-- 
Irrwahn Grausewitz (irrwahn33@freenet.de) 
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